Deep in the heart of winter

This time of year is fraught with emotion for me. And maybe you, too.

Christmas is the happy time of year when I decorate our home, shop for gifts, bake special treats, go to parties and celebrations, gather my boys home with my husband and me, and go to church, all in the name of a baby born so long ago.

It's also a time that comes with high expectations. Everywhere businesses trumpet their wares, assuring me that if I buy their product, it will produce the picture perfect Christmas portrayed in their ad, complete with shining faces and even falling snow.

Forget that I now live in the Pacific Northwest, where it generally rains at this time of year. Forget that I can't afford to put a brand new multi-thousand dollar 'whatever' under the tree for each of my loved ones. Forget that that's not what Christmas is all about. Forget that. If I just bake enough, shop enough, smile hard enough, it can be that shining holiday of perfection portrayed in the ads.

Well, it never is, is it? At our house, it's a quiet time with a few dinners with friends in from out of town, one or two relatives who have braved the snowed-in airports on their end of the country to come to us, and three large, restless males who would rather not be stuck in a suburban home in the *%# rain, lol.

I will say that this year I managed to ignore the lure of shiny perfection (for the most part--I'm only human) and enjoy our quiet holiday. And my men got out to do some shooting at the rifle range and work on their trucks, so they were pretty happy.

Now I'm enjoying the quiet aftermath, with boys back to school and husband back to work. I'm building my new website, using WritePro to build my new series, and putting my old blog info into this new one, which I love.

The best way I can think of to spend another winter day. And it did snow yesterday ... just enough to make my neighborhood pretty and white, before it melted.

life is good,
Cathryn